


Mass Effect Anomalies

by GravityMassUniverse



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls, Mass Effect - All Media Types, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-01-15 19:28:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12327339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GravityMassUniverse/pseuds/GravityMassUniverse
Summary: What if Humanity lived in a very different world than the mass Effect we know. One where Anomalies both wondrous and horrifying exist, from bending and spirits, to ancient alien empires and magic, and a world overrun with mythical creatures and beings. How would humanity evolve in a world where the borders between realities has grown thin. How will the galaxy be changed by the existence of these unique Anomalies, not limited to only Earth.





	1. Rise of the Crystal Systems Alliance

 

**Revised Author’s Note:**

This is my first major fanfiction that I'm working on it's an idea that's been buzzing in my head for years.

This is an au Fusion with Mass Effect, Steven Universe, the Avatar series,Gravity Falls and Dinosaurs. Humanity developed and evolved 1746 years earlier though the Reapers invade a century later than in Canon.

Any numbers and populations will be made by me with everyone having an uptick in strength and population. The story will be as realistic as I can for a story with magic space rocks, Spirits, Dream demons, dinosaurs, and bending the elements.

Any and all feedback is welcome.

Well let the story begin.

* * *

 

Chapter 1: Rise of the Crystal Systems Alliance

  
2986 BCE:

“The gem war has ended.” spoke a being that had lived through billions of years and watched an endless cycle of death and destruction pass.

“Told you the war would end you old squid faced geezer.” spoke another being far older and far more powerful.

“The spirit of chaos and darkness has escaped and plans to join the betrayers, this WAS not part of our deal Cipher!” the elder Leviathan angrily boomed.

The other being appeared through the elders mindscape revealing himself to be an odd yellow triangle with a top hat. “ Haha this is just a bit of fun just in case this so called Zodiac Prophecy is able to defeat me.” laughed the strange triangle.

“And was this so called Corruption a part of your plan, this new weapon damages and corrupts everything, those immune or protected will be terrorized for centuries by what is left behind!” the enraged leviathan exploded.

“Isn’t it great squidface so much chaos, I even impress myself!” Bill Cipher gleefully boasted. “With the knowledge you gave on these gems I managed to break that oversized edgy kite free from the Avatar’s trap and with Pinky’s indisposed set in motion the events needed for my little plan. The psychotic triangle cackled at his ingenious plan.

“Well I’ll be seeing you, oh and one more thing.” Bill spoke.

“Yes.” the leviathan wearily answered.

“Remember Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold, BYE! The one eyed demon excitedly spoke before leaving.

“Is he gone? The weary light spirit spoke for the first time.

“Yes the cipher has left and returned to his realm.” the elder spoke

“The cipher must not succeed in his foolish plan, it will lead to the end of all worlds including his own if he survives, with the cycle broken I will find a human to pass down and accumulate my power until I can be reunited with Zhong’s soul.” Raava urged.

“The cycle must end, I will not allow it to continue, even as my free will is slowly eroded away because of the betrayers, my final act will be to give the natives of this galaxy the means to end the Cycle, the humans will not be alone as they rise to the stars.” the Leviathan declared before growing silent.

“I truly hope you know what you are doing old friend.” the light spirit murmured.

* * *

 

In 2012 the whole world watched with bated breath as they watched the arrival of the great comet. Translations of old elemental nations text dating back over 300,000 years called it Sozin’s Comet. The comet would mark the beginning of a new age, the comet as it scraped the earth’s atmosphere caused the population of the once rare elemental benders to skyrocket going from 1 in 5000 to 1 in a 100. This era of change marked the beginning of the Bending Renaissance.

Benders were a rare phenomenon were humans and other living beings had the ability to manipulate one of four classical elements, such as air,water,earth, and fire. They were believed to have been much more common during the reign of the first human nations over 300,000 years ago. Many ancient techniques of these ancient nations were lost to time, and with the Renaissance were rediscovered. New techniques were also developed, unlike any previously seen in recent times.  
Many earthbenders figured out how to bend sand and to superheat into into glass.  
Water benders learned to hyper compress water and turn themselves into water cannons capable of punching through multiple feet of steel. Firebenders learned to sense heat as a sixth sense, allowing them to find hidden targets, or to create hot air blast. Airbenders learned to superheat air to near plasma temperatures, and surround themselves in a deadly spin dash. In many ways the great comet brought a revolution unlike any seen in thousands of years.

However not all was peaceful in this new era, the changes that began with the comet would sow the seeds for future conflict and war. Many factions began to develop after bending fully returned to the world. There were many groups who considered benders to be unnatural freaks who shouldn’t exist. Others believed benders were the next step in human evolution and should rise up against their inferior brethren. Other groups were anti non-human and considered the other sapient species that inhabited the earth alongside humanity vermin to be exterminated or exploited.

One of the species that butted heads with this last faction, were the Chicxulub Republic. They were a civilization of recreated dinosaurs, with many scientist in agreement that they were created using ancient gem technology. They inhabited most of the ancient island chain homeland of the first firebenders in middle of the Atlantic ocean. The Chicx Republic were ultimately the most mundane of the species that inhabited the earth alongside humanity. These almost mythical beings inhabited all corner of the world yet untouched by humans. There were the many subspecies of Lamias that lived throughout the world. The proud and chivalrous centaurs, the great and terrible dragons, and many peoples and beast of legend.  
These beings that lived alongside humanity for countless millennia. In this century it would all soon come to a head.

But before this first would come the technology that would pave the path for all life on Earth. In the early 21st century multiple corporations and nations began working on reusable spacecraft. While humans developed most of the technology they had on their own, due to the near 95% death rate of gem ruin expeditions. Humanity the most advanced of the earth’s inhabitants, now had the technology to safely venture into these ruins. Human technology advanced rapidly as while the technology could not yet be replicated. The few insights into their technology advanced humans by decades. One of the most useful was the files on an ancient human zoo, that inspired humans and Saurians on how to maintain themselves long term in space. The leaders of this new space industry would be companies such as SpaceX founded by Elon Musk, and Blue Origins founded by Jeff Bezos, as well as the Chinese and Bhāratan space program. A new space race had begun fueled by the new advances made in this century of change.

The winner of this race would be the American SpaceX with their methane fueled reusable spacecraft. They would land two cargo ships in the year 2022 at least four years ahead of any other companies. SpaceX stock value would rise massively with their revenue from their high speed satellite network known as Starlink, along with the success of his other companies, Elon Musk would become one of the richest men of the 21st century. As the 2030s loomed the future looked bright as many nations reached for space. Thousands of people had left to set up a new civilization on mars. Mars’s main export would be various forms of reality television, as well as new research that could not be done on earth. Mars would eventually serve as a gateway to the asteroid belt.

But this new peace would not last, as humanities mistakes finally caught up wit them. Human generated greenhouse gases had finally pushed the world to the edge. In 2038 a research into the arctic, concluded that the area had officially become ice free, with less than a million km square of sea ice. The change in albedo and the massive methane leak from the permafrost as well as deep sea ice, created a massive runaway greenhouse effect. Temperatures in vulnerable nations soared, with many equatorial areas becoming unfit for human habitation. Wealthier nations such as several Middle eastern great powers and the Bhāratan Empire were able to compact their populations into massive climate controlled mega cities. Changing climate would spark 5 new worlds wars all in differing locations.

The 3rd world war would be fought in the practically boiling Middle East. Iran a fairly belligerent but rational power had grown increasingly unstable as many of its weaker surrounding nations, collapsed.As the nation fell into an economic slump, a new leader would rise up and take power, and with their neighboring nations weakened by civil war and harsh climates, Iran began its conquest by invading Iraq in 2042. Turkey went through a similar transformation and invaded Syria, and Greece. The Middle East quickly collapsed into complete chaos as the remaining natives fought for land and resources. Millions died as new advanced weapons were tested during the war, from advanced laser,plasma and railgun weapons, to advanced propulsion and shielding technology.  
The war would drag on for two years, though Turkey’s foolish invasion of Greece would bring upon the ire of a new united European Union. In the end the Middle East would be left nearly completely desolate, with the pieces left taken by the European Union, the United States, the Bhāratan Empire, and the Russian Federation. Only 50 million or so people would be left alive in the Middle East.

The 21st century would be plagued by many new horrific wars and conflicts killing more and more people with each war. The 4th Great War would be between the European Union and the Russia. In 2050 the Russian federation would become the Russian Empire, as it had discovered an ancient gem weapon, capable of creating an infinite army of light. The Russians, with their new army would process to invade Poland, sparking the first european war in decades. New and terrible weapons were developed, including one that would force the United States to enter into the war, the aptly named warp bomb. This weapon would tear two holes in reality, two cities would be destroyed as the cities were forcefully pulled together. The weapons first target would be Paris and New York City. Tens of millions would die as the two cities were torn to pieces and debris impacted across their nations. The United States quickly joined in the campaign against the empire. The war would end with a massive Russian military complex based in an ancient ruin being nuked by two 25 megaton warheads. The light weapon would end up being lost in the explosion and it is yet unknown as to its location. New York City would later be renamed Empire City, and Paris would be renamed New Paris.

  
The fifth Great War would be between the growing human supremacist groups, who would later become known as Enkidu and Cerberus and the Chicxulub Republic. The two terrorist groups began their reign of terror in 2060. These two terrorist groups and criminals would be responsible for one of the greatest atrocities of this century. Enkidu would target various mythological sapient species and enslave them, they would orchestrate one the largest slaving rings the world had ever seen. Millions of non-humans fell to their horrible cruelty and bigotry, Cerberus would aim more for alien beings using the earth as refuge. They used the new uninhabited areas of the earth and forced the other races to live in essentially reserves until they starved to death or died from the heat. These two organizations numbered in the millions and attempted to invade the Chicxulub Republic as it remained the last refuge for non-humans. The superpowers of the world immediately allied with the Chicx Republic and after six years of fighting the two groups were eradicated in their entirety.

The two final great wars were ultimately the smallest of the wars though their combined death toll was still far greater. World war six began with the rise of the first modern mythical beast civilization in almost a hundred years. In 2072 a powerful Lamia would rise to power, and began her conquest of all african territory outside the Bhāratan Empire’s provinces. She began to subjugate numerous nations and absorb them. Most would flee across the southern border to the empires vast mega cities. Lamias being reptiles were better able to adapt to the climate. Eventually they entered into a brief but bloody conflict with the Bhāratan empire. The war marked the first use of early forms of orbital bombardment and gem based weaponry. Various powers armors were developed to allow humans to fight with the physically superior Lamias. The war would last two years and killed around 70 million people, though due to famine was closer to 300 million. The 7th Great War would be known as the Jungle wars, as civil wars began to wrack all of South America, due to the temperatures rising to reach over 130 degrees Fahrenheit.l, for month at a time. This war began in 2082 and dragged on for 12 long years. Many nations in south america began to invade one another for increasingly scarce resources, with Brazil absorbing the largest amount of territory. Brazil would with help from the the newly formed United North American States or the UNAS, become the effective ruler of South America. However civil wars spread across the nation, killing many tens of millions not including the vast famines, as massive wildfires and over exploitation had destroyed the Amazon, causing massive damage to the ecosystem. This Great War despite uniting the southern continent would leave over 300 million dead and another 200 million dead from famine.

In 2096 after the end of the last world war, hundreds of billions would be put into further colonization of space, as well as terraforming technology based on further gem ruin findings. Millions would leave the dying earth, it’s ocean green with death and decay, vast deserts covering most of the planet, and the only signs of green left being in cities spanning hundreds of miles. The vast wastelands would be dominated by the non human civilizations who would build upon the ruins of former human nations. These kingdoms would remain on earth, welcoming those who immigrate to their vast underground cities. The earth would take centuries to recover from the sixth mass extinction.

As the 22nd century began a new era dominated by space nations would begin. Most of the earth’s human population would ultimately flee the Mars, and the asteroid belt. New technologies were developed capable of of terraforming based on the abilities of certain types of gems. Unfortunately most of this technology was unable to be used on earth because any small mistake could destroy all life on the planet. One of the best examples of the use of terraforming technology would the planet Venus a deadly greenhouse planet. Using a mix of massive scale aerokinesis   
and hydrokinesis, the deadly planet would within 50 years become a perfect garden word, with a thin ocean covering 80% of the planet’s surface, a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere 3 times thicker than earth’s and near global coral reefs. The two new garden worlds would serve as havens for mankind as well as the Chicx Republic who would later call themselves the Saurians.

As Venus and Mars grew they became increasingly independent of the already weakened Earth. In 2160 Mars would become the the Martian Empire, and Venus would become the Cytherean Federation. Earth did not have the population to stop the two colonies, with only 500 million humans left on earth. Mars already had a population of 1 billion and Venus a population of two billion, as both had gone through a massive population boom in the last fifty years.

Venus and Mars would become the first humans to succeed in reverse engineering warp pad technology allowing for near instant transportation once a warp pad network is set up. However getting to a distant star Systems would still take decades of time just to arrive, so while a vast improvement it was still not enough to maintain a continuous empire. The republic and the Empire however mantaineenvarious asteroids as massive mining colonies. Mars would have the greatest number however, being the nearest to the “Belt” colonies. Soon however an incident would put into motion the first interplanetary war.

In 2214 a terrorist attack on one of Mars moon, would cause Deimos to crash onto a major Martian City, while most of the asteroid was diverted a large piece was still able to destroy the Martian city of New Rome. Millions died to the horrible attack that was later traced back the the Federation. This would be the final straw as for decades the two powers competed for resources, and a massive wave of nationalism had begun to surge throughout the colonies. The Martian empire and its colonies would unilaterally declare war on the Cytherean Federation and its colonies, beginning the first Intersolar War.

The two nations would enter into a wartime economy and would for the first time build the first space warships. Dozens of ships were built on both sides with the largest ships approaching 470 meters in length. The war would send millions of soldiers to the each other’s planets. Orbital bombardment would wipe out entire cities off the map as the war only escalated. Millions upon millions would fall prey to the maelstrom of death and destruction that had begun. Eventually a space battle over earth orbit would give the human homeworld the incentive to send their own attack. Earth during the war had succeeded in reverse engineering gem light cannon weaponry. The war would end in 2218 when the United earth captured and forced the two nations government before they destroyed each other with weapons of mass destruction. However a mistake would be made when numerous members of the two former governments fled into the newly colonized Jovian planets. Due to the great distance between the inner and outer worlds, the United Inner Systems was unable to find them, and a horrible discovery would bring upon one final war before the natives of earth would leave the solar system.

The former war criminals would take control of the Jovian colonies and form the new Jovian League, a vast empire made of of billions of loosely connected people. The Jovian League would create vast armies of machines and clones to subjugate the population using technology from an ancient black ship. The Jovian League remained neutral with the UIS, as it consolidated its power, the UIS unable to invade it as they spent decades rebuilding after the first war.

In 2238 the Jovian League would make their move invading the colony of Ceres and and enslaving most of its people. Millions would be implanted with heavy cybernetics and used as living weapons against the rest of the UIS. The Jovian League was ruled by four grand matriarch who believed that the current generation of humans needed to be replaced by humans created for their goals and no one else’s. Hundreds of millions perished with their use of neutrium based technology. Fortunately the war took a turn when one of their own weaponized artificial intelligences turned against them and killed the youngest of the four tyrants. Numerous leaks began to weaken the League’s campaign and faster than light technology was developed by the UIS, bending reality to break the light speed barrier. Little is officially known as to how the remaining 3 leaders were killed, all that is known is that two massive pink and white lights engulfed the last stronghold before it was completely annihilated.

With the end of the Jovian League, the human race and the Saurians who had allied with them were united throughout the Solar system. Within three years a new discovery would be made around Arcturus. Multiple massive giant tuning fork object orbited a small planet in the system. They were discovered to be part of a massive galactic FTL network, capable of sending ships across the galaxy in an instant. Thousand of ships were quickly seen through once a year long survey had been conducted to check if the other side was safe for Terrankind. With the discovery of the Mass Relays, the government decided to form the Crystal Systems Alliance as protection against potential alien threats. The mundane species of earth joined the Alliance while the others formed their own alliance. Both despite their differences remained close allies throughout the centuries after.

However not all remained peaceful, when a wolfpack of frigates discovered a Yahg Cruiser and it’s contingent of frigates. War quickly started when the 5 of The is frigates were destroyed. It was discovered that an interstellar civil war had started between two factions within the Yahg empire. The war was short and bloody with millions dead, the Alliance backed the faction that was more amiable to other species. The war ended with the more violent empire subdued by the new Yahg empire and surrendered. The war was fortunately brief, but the Yahg would not be the only race discovered. A hive mind intelligence of insect like aliens known as the Rachni made first contact with the Alliance and the Yahg in 2267. They were in fact strangely enthusiastic to meet humanity in particular, considering them friends of the earth hive. The first contact war, over the relations between the Rachni would become closer and closer until the Alliance offered them and the Yahg membership in their multi species government. The Rachni accepted while the Yahg declined the offer preferring greater independence than that given by the Alliance. The Alliance quickly began to spread and technology continued to advance with their FTl engines making it possible.

A millennium of relative peace began as the Alliance only grew in power. While there were many deadly wars they never approached true interstellar warfare.  
A large military was maintained to defend from pirates and insurrectionist.

But in 3641 that peace is shattered when a prothean map is discovered that leads to a relay in a huge opaque nebulae. It’s coordinates were used in a Yahg experiment to create their own relay that would connect to it. however it goes horribly wrong as an Alliance colony ship and its frigate and cruiser escorts are dragged in. The newly discovered relay loses its connection with its original partner relay. The small colonization fleet is caught in a war between two newly discovered species, the organic Quarians and the synthetic Geth, that when the alliance joined would become known as the 2nd Extrasolar War.

The Geth initially developed as servants that developed self awareness and sapience, the civilian populations supported the geth, but the government and military did not leading to a bloody civil war. Billions die as the military makes use of weapons of mass destruction to subjugate the population. Alliance civilian are caught in the crossfire killing tens of thousand of people. The Alliance quickly began to sends its meager fleet to stop the war, its warship production is expanded massively. Alliance AI who call themselves Synths help in preventing the death of both organics and synthetics. After the quarian military is defeated, the leaders complacent in war crimes are sentenced to death. After the war the approximately 90 million quarians as well as the Geth join the alliance as a member species. Much of their culture and history is lost due to the war though there are whispers that the Quarians were associate members of a wider alliance.

Over a 100 years pass before the discovery of a new spacefaring species, known as the Raloi, a small avian like species. The Raloi after a decade of negotiations decided to become a new member species, however many raloi disliked being a part of the Alliance and revolted. This civil war would quickly spread across most of known space, becoming the 3rd Extrasolar War. Raloi separatist warships would attack and raid colonies killing thousands. The war intensified when a strain of earth bird flu mutates and spreads to raloi proving deadly and highly virulent. The separatist would kill billions through use of orbital bombardment and raloi bird flu as a biological weapon. Fortunately the alliance would quickly create a vaccine and a cure to the disease before it caused more damage. The war would end with the trial of the separatist and their execution for crimes against sophont life.

Peace would return to known space and the Alliance kept their fleet relatively small with only about 95,000 warships between its member species. FTL speeds had improved massively allowing for speeds of over 50,000 light years per day.  
The Crystal Systems Alliance numbered in the trillions across thousands of worlds. Ships grew larger allowing for warships up to 4 kilometers in length. Alliance technology was comparable to or even exceeded the the Citadel races,though the  
few still alive to know of the other races were afraid a war could break out. Many unknown missions were sent into Citadel space but few knew what was ultimately done or why.

Then came contact with the System Alliance’s and eventually the entire galaxy’s greatest enemy.

 


	2. The Fallen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the new and improved chapter two, taking from the advice given to me, I’ve rewritten chapter two, and will now do a minor rewrite of chapter three. Once that is done I’ll start writing chapter five and some more snippets to go along side it. Thank you for reading my story.

**Chapter 2: The Fallen**

Year 3829:

On the Chicxulub dreadnought, a spar was soon to begin between two great and terrible titans. In the massive sparring room spanning over 75 Meters in either direction, stood a female Tyrannosaurus, and a male Spinosaurus. The female known as Sue was the new commanding officer of the ship, after the previous captain had retired to spend time with her extended family, she stood in at 18 feet tall and 40 feet in length covered in light reddish down with golden eyes. The Spinosaurus reached 25 feet including his sail, and was 50 feet long, with brilliant sapphire scales, and amber eyes.The fleet had remained in orbit over Arcturus for a brief shore leave. Dozens of crew members who weren’t themselves sparring were watching the most anticipated fight of the day.

The two hyper predators circled around each other as they entered the sparring circle. In the 30 meter diameter circle lied piles of rocks and buckets of water, used as sources for the benders of the two elements. The match had yet to begin and in one of the small crowds three members of the ships crew were making bets as to which of the two fighters would win in the ensuing fight.

Clix a pale troodon who acted as the pilot of the dreadnought,he was about 5’1 in height with white feathers, and chocolate brown eyes. To Clix’s left stood Fatima, a human female standing at about 7’2, she looked to be of arabic descent, with light brown skin, short black hair, brilliant green eyes, and a fairly large bust. To his right stood a female raptor and engineer on the ship named Blue, she stood at about 6’1 in height and 14 feet in length. She had a full blue coating of down and arm feathers, with blue-green eyes.

“C’mon the admiral will totally beat that overgrown croc!” The pilot argued for the tyrannosaurs superiority. “She’s a fellow Red, us martians are the greatest fighting force in the galaxy.” Fatima crossed her arms and glared at the little troodon, who shrank away from the intensity of her gaze. “Please you martians live your entire lives at .38 Gs, you guys couldn’t fight your way out of a paper bag.” The annoyed women angrily pushed back against the troodon claims. The women smirked.“But us Cythereans on the other hand, have been beating you Reds down since the 2200s.” The N7 openly boasted. The pilot turned toward the engineer. “Come on Blue who do you think gonna win in this spar?” The troodon asked. The female did an odd shrug. “Could go either way,but honestly I could care less.” The female answered uncaring and indifferent to the outcome. The troodon looked miffed at the engineers response. “You gotta give us more than that little blue.” The troodon pestered the engineer. The raptor immediately wrapped her sharp claws around his neck. “You call me that again and I’ll gut you like a fish!” She screamed at the terrified troodon. “Okay I won’t call you little.” The troodon attempted to placate the angry female. Fatima snorted. “You really got a way with the ladies don’t you Clix.” The N7 jested. The three friend quickly turned to view the ensuing fight.

The captain was the one to make the first move, the air around her jaws began to superheat, and a massive blast of fire leapt from her throat. The spinosaurus movers his unusually flexible arms in a certain movement and a massive torrent of water blocked it supplied from the the dozens of buckets in the sparring ring.  
Both the massive soldiers ran toward each at top speed and crashed into each other with huge force. The entire room shook as the massive titans fought for dominance. The spinosaurus immediately began to use his advantage of reach to grapple Sue. However she would not allow him to attain any advantage, as around her claws massive blades of fire formed and she slashed them toward his body. The soldier was forced to avoid the deadly blades, and lost his ground. Both grew increasingly aggressive, and began to make the respective calls of their species. The air as well as the organs of the audience began to vibrate as their low frequency calls pulsed through the room. The audiences were left slightly afraid as natural instinct told them to avoid the two enraged super predators. Sue had moved to the edge of the circle and closed her eyes. As she reopened them she _moved_ going from standstill to hitting like a truck. her body was wrapped in a massive aura of fire as she propelled herself. The spinosaurus quickly found himself flying through the air. The three previously mentions friends were forced to dodge the massive projectile. A loud boom as the unconscious spinosaurus collapsed to the floor.

The pilot had in his haste to get away clung to Fatima’s front, Blue was currently attached to her back. An enraged aura began to surround the women as she glared at the troodon attached to her “assets”. “Oh crap.” The troodon spluttered.  
Fatima then lifted her left arm and gave a haymaker to Clix’s chest sending him sprawling to the floor. Blue had already dropped down from Fatima’s back.  
“Ow.” The troodon muttered in pain.

The victorious admiral basked in her glory, before her holographic visor activated. Words were heard from the visor before Sue nodded.

“New orders from Arcturus, the 12th is being sent to investigate the recent colony disappearances, we’ve gotten a breakthrough in the case.” The Tyrannosaurus explained to the ship. The one thousand strong fleet oriented toward the colony they were warping to. Unknown to anyone their mission would spark the largest war in the history of the galaxy.

* * *

 

“We’ve reached Gaia.“ Clix had spoken.

“Sensors detect hundreds of contacts in orbit around Gaia, no signs of life have been detected in the colony“ one of the ship's AI named Levi informed Sue.

“Do we have a visual of the unknown ships?” Sue asked.

“Yes”

“Put it on screen” Sue boomed.

“It looks like a beehive had sex with an asteroid” the Troodon Pilot commented.

“Excuse me?” The Admiral asked, annoyed by the pilots lapse in professionalism.

The already pale troodon paled even further under the admirals ire.

“Sorry sir.” Clix apologized.

The larger ships were kilometer long cruisers, with a single 2.5 kilometer dreadnought operating as a Flagship. Hundreds of frigates and thousands of eye like fighters moved around the larger ships like a vast swarm. They looked to be carved out of asteroids, almost fragile. Yet they had subdued and presumably captured or destroyed dozens of colonies.

“The unknown fleet is moving towards us with weapons hot.” Levi warned.

The enemy fleet immediately turned toward Sue's fleet, and began to fire. Hundreds of yellow particle beams began to cross the void of space.

“Prepare for battle stations!” Boomed Sue.

“Three thousand new contacts have just left FTl, our sensors indicate they appear to use neutrium based technology!” Levi panickingly informed the Admiral.

“Send a message to the Alliance.” Sue commanded.

“Your command cannot be completed as the enemy fleet is blocking our signal.” The despondent AI answered her commanding officer.

“Shit.” The Tyrannosaurus muttered. Sue turned toward the only N7 currently aboard the ship

“Commander Abdullah, take one of the corvettes with as many of the crew as possible and escape.” Sue calmly ordered the N7

“Sir?” Fatima questioned.

“GO!” The Admiral bellowed.  
Fatima left the command center, and succeeded in gathering about 100 crew including Blue. As the corvette raced away from the ensuing battle, sensors continued to obtain as much information as possible on the enemy before they would engage FTL.

The Chicxulub immediately began to fire it’s Capital Class Light Cannon incinerating an enemy Cruiser in a single shot. The largest naval battle since the geth war had just begun. Dozens of Alliance corvettes and frigates fell to concentrated enemy particle weaponry. Hundreds of Alliance Fighters jousted with enemy fighters at speeds of tens of thousands of kilometers per hour. 4 dreadnoughts and several dozen cruisers began to focus fire on the Chicxulub until its energy barriers are fully brought down. Multiple enemy frigates prepare to board the vessel. Six vessels succeed in breaking through the ships armor.

“Prepare for boarders!” Levi yelled through the speakers. She quickly attached her weapon emplacement platforms, allowing her to act as living artillery. The ship grows dark and quiet as most of the ships power is cut and most of the crew is killed.

The command centers crew watches as multiple shadows approach until they become visible. In spite of all of their training they froze. Many of the borders looked Terran but they were not. They were corpses, their skin a dark grey, their bodies covered in scars and their organs replaced by extensive cybernetics. One of the leaders however was something else, an insect like triangular head with two pair of eyes, and an orange exoskeleton with a single pair of legs.

“What the hell are you! Sue exclaimed.

The Being spoke “ **There are beings out in the void that are infinitely your greater.** ” “ **You can not stop us, you can only become us.** ” The being continued to monologue. The being stopped and then stared directly at Sue.  
The being smiled. “ **Now die for us.** ” The abomination throws a massive biotic warp killing half the crew. Sue roars as she sends a massive blast toward the things face. The being walks through the fire unscathed. Sue’s eyes widened as she felt a pain explode through her heart, she looked down as the claw of a Ravager tears her in half and dies instantly.

As the crew dies around him, Clix stares unblinkingly as a massive human husk barrels toward him.

“Heh so this is how it ends huh, at least the both of them are safe.” The troodon speaks his final words, before the husks miniature Thanix gun incinerates him.

* * *

 

The fleet was quickly destroyed and their crew assimilated by what the Alliance would later fall the “Fallen”. The “Fallen” Fleet turns out to be mere fraction of what’s to come. Tens of thousands of ships quickly burn through Alliance space. Fortunately a corvette that succeeds in escaping gave the Alliance advanced warning as well as data on the enemies capabilities.

The Alliance are able to learn a fair bit about the enemy, they are a race of genetically enhanced clones, an extinct species enslaved by another. They have no colonies living in massive space stations around white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. They have no compassion, harvesting and destroying dozens of more colonies. They are mere puppets of a race the Alliance has yet to meet. The Alliance fought for close to 90 years to end their reign of terror, a million dying each day throughout the war. The Alliance and the Yahg expanded their fleets massively to cope with the two hundred thousand strong “Fallen” fleet . Entire planets are lost throughout the war, but the Alliance succeed in pushing them further back each year. One by one their space stations are destroyed each filled with more horrifying experiment than the last. But on the final “Fallen” space station a final horrible weapon is unleashed on the Alliance.

* * *

 

Unknown System July 9th 3918

Around a massive station orbiting a ten thousand solar mass black hole, a light cruiser and six frigates had succeeded in taking down a single enemy dreadnought. The small flotilla was lead by captain Parvati Maheswaran a member of the nearly extinct Maheswaran Royal Family. She had sent a squad to investigate the space station. However the signal to the squad was lost one hour into the mission. The captain was still fairly young and inexperienced in commanding so many people. However she did have a good sense of when something is coming.

An hour after the squad was presumed KIA a transmission broke into the comms  
“ **sdrager sih sevig rehpyC ehT snis ruoy fo lla ot tnemunom eht ma I .gninnigeb eht dna dne eht ma I.** ” The garbled speech passed through the flotillas comms before all the frigates around her become unresponsive. Her cruiser had enough processing power to counteract the virus that had knocked out the frigates. The crew of the cruise was left reeling as from within the station a “Fallen” cruiser emerged and activated its FTL. Several dozen shuttles entered into her frigates, and signals from her  other ships came in.

“Captain warn the Alliance, a dangerous parasitic life form has taken control of our ships.” The ships one by one began to leap into FTL right in the direction of Alliance space.

“Warn then before it’s too lat—aaghh!” The unnamed captain to speak before a squelching sound silenced him.

“Oh god.” The horrified captain whispered. The cruiser quickly sent a message to the entire alliance, but it was far far too late to stop what was coming now.

* * *

 

On that space station a horrifying bio weapon had been created in case the true enemies puppets failed in assimilating the Alliance, so their masters decided to curtail the population through biological means. Dozens of colonies are initially infected, with within a year balloons into thousands including Systems uninhabited by sapient races. The “Fallen” in the chaos succeed in fleeing to the galactic core where Terran kind can not yet reach.

Every world infected by the Parasite are immediately sterilized, through sufficient orbital bombardment to boil the planet's oceans and melt its crust. In the final decade of the war well over ten times more people die as in the last 3000 years of warfare in the galaxy combined. Eventually after the death of thousand of world the Parasite is successfully pushed back.  
However the last of the Parasite an entire solar system and is minutes away from opening a Mass Relay, so a weapon created during the last decade of the war is deployed. The super dreadnought Vishnu, 19 kilometers in length. It’s main weapon is a spirit energy cannon on a massive scale. When the Vishnu is sent to the last Parasite held system there are still billions of survivors, but there is nor more time to save them as the Parasite has thousands of ships ready to infect the entire galaxy.

When the Vishnu fired, it unleashed a near light speed beam of energy, every object in the Systems from the size of a grain of size to the largest gas giant was utterly shattered, every fusionable or fissionable material within the System detonated with the force of trillions of atomic bombs. The energy equivalent of a small supernova is ejected by the dying solar system.

The Vishnu was the only of its class ever Built, its weapon defueled to prevent it being used against the Alliance and any of its allies. The Alliance quickly rebuilt itself after the war, and a huge population boom began as billions of military veterans return home and start their own families. A vast navy and military is maintained after the war, so that it can not be caught off guard by the enemy or anyone else.

For 70 years the Systems Alliance has remained the only power in the galaxy with very few knowing of any other galactic civilization. Until a Citadel expedition to the other end of Relay 314 is sent.


	3. Enter the Citadel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the final iteration for now, for chapter 3. Now I can start working on chapter 5 more short stories.

**Chapter 3: Enter The Citadel**

  
  


Year 3999:

 

Saren Arterius was impatient. He was a young but skilled spectre sent to monitor the Citadel Expeditionary Fleet as they travelled in week long FTL to the other side of Relay 314. Scientist studying the Relay had  pinpointed the location of its partner relay.  The fleet was large and multi species in fact. Everything from a Hanar frigate to an Asari Heavy cruiser, there were even a few token ships from the resurgent Krogan Empire and the Batarian Federation. Over 500 ships were gathered for the expedition, with an outdated 1.9 km Turian Dreadnought acting as its flagship. Yet the expeditionary fleet was less than a thousandth of the total size of all the known races navies. The Citadel had needed new regions to expand to as their population grew and new planets and asteroids to mine to support their industry. He was currently travelling aboard the Asari cruise Agathe measuring about 724 meters long, one of the newer models built during and after the Terminus War over 250 years ago. Saren had been assigned because of unusual activity around Relay 314, including signs of it nearly being activated multiple centuries ago and ghost ship sightings.

 

The navigations officer a young Thessian Asari fiddled with her omni tool

 

“Captain we should be arriving to the partner Relay in about 10 seconds.” Lia Thanoptis said 

 

“Prepare for FTL exit” warned the nearly matriarch age Captain. 

Saren knew her name was Hela Radido an Asari commando that had become famous for taking out a dreadnought during the Terminus war.

 

Within a minute the entire fleet had exited out of ftl, plain to see was the inactive tuning fork shaped Mass Relay. The whole fleet was moving around the Relay preparing for eventual activation after it is confirmed safe.

 

“Captain our sensors have picked up several hundred contacts around a nearby habitable planet!” Lia worriedly informed.

 

“Hmm contact the rest of the fleet” the captain ordered.

 

“Roger” the CIC responded nervously

 

“You picking up the same thing on your end?” The gruff voice of a krogan captain broke in.

 

“Yes a 12km space station and 350 Corvette sized craft in orbit around the habitable planet.” answered the captain.

 

“This Is Mordin Donike we’re detecting a huge gravitational anomaly 15km away from your ship!” The captain of one of the salarians cruisers yelled through the comms. 

 

What in Spirits is going on here, Saren internally pondered. He was waiting for the captain to inform the Council of the new discovery when through the CIC window a massive ship appeared from within the anomaly.

 

“By the Spirits it’s massive!” Saren exclaimed.

 

“By the goddess it’s as big as the destiny ascension!” The navigation officer screamed.

 

“Calm down and tell me what our sensors are seeing” Radido ordered.

 

“ ...It’a a-a-about 1.5km in diameter and 6 km in length if our sensors are correct.” Thanoptis stuttered.

 

“ It matches no known signatures, its Armor is odd and their Shields seem to different from our own, the best we can guess for their weaponry is some form of directed energy similar to the Destiny Ascension particle Cannon. I can detect some amount of element Zero on the ship but nowhere near enough to power a ship of that size.” Lia Thanoptis informed the captain and the fleet.

 

Was the ship getting closer? Saren pondered. The ship didn't seem to notice them as it kept moving towards them. The ship resembled a huge cylinder similar to old concepts for orbital colonies, colored a dull silver with dozens of what seemed to be Broadside Guns, and a single massive main gun. The ship was getting too close for comfort.

 

“Abandon ship” the Captain bellowed.

 

The whole ship was in chaos as they entered escape Pods before the super dreadnought rammed them. Within less than a minute most of the ship had been evacuated. 

This is a damn disaster Saren thought inches away from the pod until the whole ship shook as it was torn to shreds. As Saren entered his Pod, he breathed a sigh of relief “finally”. But he noticed his pod had been damaged and was heading toward one of  dreadnoughts windows.

 

“Heh guess I won’t be seeing you for dinner next week Solaria.” Saren weakly muttered before blacking out as his pod impacted with the window.

  
  


* * *

 

 

Priyanka Maheswaran had been having a good day, she was currently on board the dreadnought Kali to visit her great grandmother, Parvati Maheswaran, Fleet admiral of the 10,000 strong 7th Fleet.

The dreadnought was visiting Shanxi to dock at its orbital space station, to fix a glitch in its system that would prevent accidental collisions after exiting from FTL.

 

The twenty five year old was currently in the medical bay acting as an intern for one of the dreadnoughts doctors, one of the few thousand Krogan in the Alliance. One Gatatog Ikira, a former genophage researcher. 

 

“No you can’t talk down a Krogan in a blood rage, you have to knock them out!” Ikira explained.

 

“That really should have been obvious for me.” Priyanka sighed.

 

“Yes it should have.” Ikira chided.

  
  


“We will be arriving to the Relay in about 2 minutes”  the ship AI had proclaimed.

 

“We should take a break from the lesson” Ikira proposed.

 

“Alright” Priyanka replied.

“Wait a moment Priyanka.” Ikira asked.

 

“Yes.” Priyanka answered.

 

“How are you and Doug doing?” the krogan female inquired.

 

“Oh, we actually got married about two years ago, we’re planning to start a family once I finish medical school.” Priyanka excitedly informed her teacher. 

 

“Heh sorry I wasn't able to be there, but there was a pretty bad emergency on Eden Prime and I was out of contact for a couple of years” Okeer apologized.

 

“Oh it’s quite alright Ikira these things happen” the young lady reassured her.

 

“Calling for doctor Okeer,we require your assistance with an injury in the engine room.” one of the medical rooms holograms interrupted. 

 

“It’s been really good to see you again Priyanka, say hello to your uncle Wrath for me, take care okay.” Okeer said as she left to another farther medical room.

 

“You too.” Priyanka replied.

  
  


Priyanka had moved to one of the windows to watch the Relay activation, the first since the 2nd Extrasolar War. The relay was quite beautiful, it looked very much like a giant tuning fork though.

She wondered whether they would find another civilization, no new friendly aliens had been found since the Raloi, ignoring the separatist of course. 

 

Priyanka took a closer look and found a number of strange lights surrounding the Relay. She took a double take as she noticed one of those lights was getting much closer every second.

Are those ships? I guess I was right about finding another civilization. That ship seems to be a frigate by the size and oh it is getting closer.

 

“Prepare for impact!” The ship AI warned.

 

“Oh Shi-” 

 

It was then that the alien ship impacted the dreadnought.

 


	4. The Spectre, the Student, and the Con Artist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well it’s taken a while to get a new chapter huh. We should be approaching the games and the other series seasons in a few more chapters. Took me a couple of days to actually write the chapter once I got a good pace on. Hope you like the new chapter and I hope you all will give me some feedback on anything I may need to improve.

Chapter 4: The Spectre, the Student, and the Con Artist

Deep in the heart of the Citadel its esteemed councillors were discussing recent Batarian Hegemony slave raids. A Hegemony fleet had recently attacked a Turian and Batarian Federation colony. There had even been slave raids on krogan, asari and salarian colonies. The Hegemony was the final remnant of the Batarians old government after they had lost the homeworld to the federation 320 years ago. The remaining high class batarians proceeded to take their remaining slaves and fleets and fled into the Terminus. They were currently speaking with the Federation ambassador who was calling for war against their former masters. Then the councillors had received reports on the incident at the Relay 314 partner relay.

Both the Councillors and the Federation president had decided to end the talks to deal with the new information as it concerned both of their respective  
Governments.

The councillors had moved into a private briefing-room used for sensitive information not meant for the public.

“You’re saying the Agathe was destroyed!” Sparatus the turian councillor asked the C-Sec officer sent to inform them.

“Yes the Agathe was rammed into by a superdreadnought.” the agent nervously informed Sparatus.

“The ship must have been massive to have so easily torn through an asari cruiser.” The Salarian councillor said.

Fedin Aemala was an old but experienced Dalatrass at 36 years of age. But both Sparatus and Tevos knew she was inexperienced with an unprecedented event like this. Tevos and Sparatus were both more used to the idea of war than she was.  
The situation was not helped by the scans that had been analyzed by C-Sec.  
The alien colony found was small but the 12km space station around it required massive industrial capacity to build it on such a small colony,

Fortunately for the Council, the fleet was told to hold their fire, preventing the outbreak of another intergalactic war.

“I believe we may need to plan for peace but prepare for war.” Tevos said.

“That seems quite uncharacteristic of you Tevos.” Aemala plainly stated.

Unlike Sparatus or Aemala, Tevos was around for the Geth war, the Batarian revolution, and the Citadel-Terminus war. She had personal experience with galaxy wide wars.

Tevos hoped it was simply a freak accident rather than an intentional attack. Fortunately the ship had seemingly stopped in place, and began to send a signal toward the fleets Flagship. The fleet was currently decoding the signal so they could communicate between the two fleets more easily.

“What about the spectre we sent with the fleet, is he still alive?” Sparatus inquired

“Oh, Saren Arterius. Yes his suit sensors indicate he is still alive and with fairly minor injuries. The Asari C-Sec agent answered.

“Has he been picked up by one of our ships.” Sparatus asked.

The Asari officer grew quiet and became increasingly nervous at the Turians question.

“Unfortunately no, he-he was picked up by the unknown superdreadnought.” The Officer nervously stammered.

The councilors were stunned by the news, that one of their rising stars had been captured by a potential enemy force.

“That reminds me, what data was found on the dreadnought that destroyed the Agathe?” The Salarian councilor asked.

“The ship measured in at 6 kilometers in length and 1.5 kilometers in width, does not use an eezo drive, and it’s main gun is believed to be a directed energy weapon of massive power,and when it arrived registered as a gravitational anomaly.” The Asari informed the Council

“By the goddess it’s larger than the Destiny Ascension” Tevos gasped.

“That’s impossible, Element Zero is the only practical method found for faster than light travel and shields.” Sparatus snarled.

“Unless…” Aemala murmured.

“Unless what!” Sparatus indignantly replied.

“I believe based on the reports that this species has discovered some of the anomalous gem ruins scattered across the galaxy or perhaps they may even be their original inhabitants.” The Councillor answered.

“STG has found in their old damaged databases coordinates that lead to a planet in the direction of the Relay 314 partner Relay that was being heavily colonized, based on the small ruins being found on most of our homeworlds, it’s possible a local species took advantage of the ruins as we had and discovered a new form of FTL travel.” Aemala speculated.

“That would be a possibility,if unlikely.” Sparatus conceded.

“If this is true,it would send shockwaves across the galaxy.” Tevos said.

Gem ruins were what allowed the Council races to grow as strong as they did, especially after the Krogan Rebellions. The Protheans were powerful, but the feats of this recent civilization were far more impressive based on the data acquired but most of their technology had been lost to time. Ruins had been found throughout the galaxy, including deep inhospitable canyons dug onto the surface of multiple Council species homeworlds.Council ships remained Mass effect based but ballooned in size from the Rachni war era 1km dreadnoughts, to 2.5km dreadnoughts becoming the minimum size. But unlike the long dead protheans, the Council was far more worried about this species. All that was found was the symbol of the absent empire, a diamond shaped insignia, with white,blue,yellow, and pink sections. The ruins made most of known space militaries paranoid, as the youngest ruins were only abandoned about 5450 standard galactic years ago.

“We must establish peace with them at all cost.” Tevos pleaded to the other councilors.

“I very much doubt that we we could win a war, if this technology is as advanced as we think it is.” Sparatus reasoned.

“Perhaps the Spectre onboard the superdreadnought can act as a diplomat.” The Salarian councilor supposed.

“I suppose all we can do is wait and hope for the best.” Tevos resignedly said.

Sparatus remained silent, pondering on what to do next.

* * *

 

“Hey kid wake up, you doing okay.” a raspy but deep voice spoke to Priyanka.

Priyanka was slowly waking up after the crash with the alien ship. Within a few minutes she opened her eyes to see a man standing over her tending to a huge cut on her arm.

He was around one inch taller than her 5’11 stature and looked to be in his forties. He had a fairly large orange nose, and massive ears, with brown hair that was rapidly graying.  
He was wearing a cheap suit, and a red fez with a strange symbol on it.

“What the fuck just happened, and who the hell are you!” Priyanka exclaimed.

“First you just took an alien space pod to the face, and second I’m the guy who just saved you from bleeding out, so you’re welcome.” The man rudely answered.

“What!” Priyanka confusedly exclaimed.

“Well just so you know who saved your life, I’m Stanl- err Ford Pines, the proud owner of the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls,Oregon.” The Man quickly introduced himself.

Stanley Pines had been looking for parts to rebuild his twin brother’s dimensional portal,when he got stuck in a cargo shipping crate. The Frigate sized ship he was trapped in brought it’s cargo to the Kali leaving him to wait until someone opened the crate, He was broken out of the crate by the impact. While looking for a way to escape he found the young student unconscious near a large Pod that had penetrated the ship. Fortunately the dreadnought’s shields kept the atmosphere from being vented.

“This is really a big mess isn’t it.” Stan Pines sighed.

“Uh…yeah.” The young student agreed with him

The young lady quickly came to a realization after several moments.

“Hey, wait a minute what the hell are you doing on this ship you’re not a guest or part of the crew.” Priyanka exclaimed.

“I got myself stuck inside a crate until the crash broke me free” Stan answered her, if with some small omissions.

“O-oh okay.” Priyanka answered off put by his blunt reply.

A chittering sound was then heard from the unknown Pod.

A groan echoed throughout the small room.

“What was that.” Both spoke simultaneously unnerved.

* * *

 

On Tuchanka the king of all Krogan had just received the news of first contact with  
a “new” species.

A large Krogan in red Armor standing in at over 2.5 meters tall was sitting atop his throne of rubble kept maintained after becoming king over 200 years ago.

“Tell me whelp where was this new species found.” Urdnot Wrex asked the young Krogan informant.

“The scout fleet discovered this new species in area close to Batarian territory.” The smaller Krogan answered.

“Huh, guess that the Terrans finally decided to come out and meet the neighbors instead of hide in the shadows.” The king of all krogan muttered.

“What’s a Terran?” The Krogan youngster confusedly asked.

“The Terrans are what gave me the drive to restore our people. We need to start preparing, I think things are going to get interesting again, if the Terrans are coming, the Reapers pets aren’t too far behind.”

* * *

 

Back on the Kali, Priyanka and Stanley were unnerved by a sound coming from the alien escape Pod. Priyanka however also found the noise to be familiar to her.

“I think I know what that noise was.” The student hesitantly said.

“Well spit it out kid!” Stan growled.

“I read it in some old files from the Geth war, a species that the Quarians once had contact with called the Turians sounded just like that sound.” Priyanka exasperatedly answered him.

“I think he or she may be hurt.” Priyanka worriedly spoke.

Priyanka quickly began to approach the pod and began to lightly jump and float over debris near the pod until she reached the door.

“You’re an airbender.” The older man blurted out in surprise.

“Do you always point out the obvious, Stan.” The young women quipped.

The young women began to put her hands on the pod door and tried to open it.  
“The Pods door seems to be stuck shut.” Priyanka muttered.  
She moved as if to rip out the pods door.  
“Wait you’re not seriously going to rip that door out it has to weight like half a ton.” Stan exclaimed.  
A large “RRRRIIPP!” was heard as the pod door was ripped straight off its hinges and thrown 2 Meters to the left with a large boom as it hit the floor of the bay.

“What the hell!” Stan yelped.  
“Now is not the time Stan!” Priyanka chided.  
The young women carefully pulled someone out from the Pod. The being resembled a mix between a dinosaur and a bird, with its skin being slightly metallic in nature. It had two mandible like structures forming a sort of beak.Wearing some form of armor over its body, the being appeared to have a broken leg, and bruises over its body.

“I don’t have the experience in this species biology to heal these injuries.” Priyanka muttered as she looked the alien over. An dim orange light shines through the room as she activated her omni tool to send a message.

“Someone with more experience with dextro amino species should be coming soon.” Priyanka quickly spoke as she placed the turian in an area relatively free of debris.

“Who’s coming?” Stan asked

The sound of heavy machinery and electronics quickly echoed from the other side of the bay. From the shadows of the darkened bay, a humanoid figure emerged. A machine with a flashlight head emerged, the robot had two limbs that ended in a two fingered and single thumbed hand, it’s legs were backward canted similar to a dog or a large bird. Its body was a silvery metallic yet had rose pink outlines, and a rose design with a pink square in the center placed where a human heart would be.

“Do you humans require assistance from this platform?” The revealed Geth queried the two humans.

* * *

 

Saren was startled awake as he was blinded by a bright light over his head.  
Spirits what just happened? Saren thought as he lay semi immobile in what appeared to be a medical bay. As he looked around the room he noticed three unusual and alarming things. On a small seat to the left of his gurney he found an unknown alien appearing asleep in it. Strongly resembling an asari, the alien he presumed female, had medium brown skin, and long dark fur that went down to her or its shoulders. She also like the Asari had two large lumps over its chest likely used for a similar purpose and wide hips. With this data he presumed that this alien was a female of the new species.

Far more alarming however, was that the bright light that woke him was not from a medical exam light as he believed but something much worse. Standing over him stood a Geth platform standing in at around 2 Meters in height, it’s single eye followed his every movement as it watched over him.

The third and strangest new sight in this unknown medical bay was what appeared to be a medic. That would not be unusual in and of itself if the medic’s species was not presumed extinct. The medic was wearing a purple environmental suit, without a helmet, revealing that the medic was a male quarian. His skin was a light purple color, with fluorescent lines across his face and neck, and slightly glowing eyes. His head was covered in fur like material like most quarians once had. He was currently looking at data on a monitor near the entrance of the room.

“Arterius-Spectre has awoken.” A robotic voice spoke, interrupting Sarens inner thoughts.

Saren’s translator detected the language as a dialect of Khelish and translated it into Turian.

“Geth!” Saren screamed as tried to warn the two other beings in the room.

“We are Geth, Yes.” The platform answered.

The alien he has seen asleep quickly stirred awake. She yawned quietly as she stretched her arms upwards and then rubbed her eyes as she awoke.

“Wwwas going on? The female groggily asked.

“Aaah you’ve finally woken up hmm.” The Quarian States as he turned from the monitor to face toward the injured Turian.

“I believe introductions are in order yes.” The Quarian added to his previous statement.

“What in the spirits is going on here!” The turian confusedly bellowed our as the strangeness of his situation fully dawned on him.

“Well Priyanka here called for help before you could die of your injuries, when your heavy frigate was destroyed by the impact.” The quarian began to explain.

Saren moves to a sitting position, and turned to the newly named alien, who shyly waved at him from he seat.

“You were the help yes?” Saren quietly asked the medic.

“Legion and I yes.” The medic answered.

Saren turned toward the Geth that had move toward the entrance of the room.  
“Are you saying this geth saved my life.” The specter asked in disbelief

The quarian quickly answered in the affirmative to Saren’s question.

“Oh right I must give you my name, I am Zek’Zorah vas Kali, and this is Stan Pines.” He pointed to the now open door, as an older looking brown furred male alien walked in.

“Uh hi.” The man awkwardly responded.

“Their species is Human if you wished to know.” The talkative quarian rambled on.

“Arterius was it?” The human female nervously asked, fidgeting a bit in her seat.

“It’s Saren.” The turian responded.

“Pardon me?” Priyanka answered.

“Arterius is my family name, Saren is my actual name.” The spectre politely informed the confused human.

“O-oh.” Priyanka stuttered out.

“My injuries, how are they and how long has it been?” Saren queried.

“Oh I can answer that.” The human female said.

“It’s been one of your standard galactic hours, and your injuries should be fully healed.” The Human female quickly and efficiently answered Saren’s question.”

“Just an hour, it would take days at least to recover from my injuries.” The shocked turian blurted out.

“Hey can you stand?” Stan burst into the conversation between the two young adults.

“I believe so,why?” Saren questioned the older human suspiciously.

“Because the admiral of this ship who is the kids great grandmother is asking for you.” Stan exasperatedly answered.

Saren sighed and and had started on removing the sheet covering before he heard a small “eeeep!”. Saren looked into the direction of the women who was covering her eyes.

“What?” Saren flatly asked.

“You’re not wearing any clothes.” Priyanka answered with a fierce blush on her face.

“We should give you some time to change into your Armor.” The medic ended th brief awkward silence that followed.

“Affirmative.” The geth designated as Legion agreed.  
Several minutes later the two humans,turian, and geth left the bay leaving the quarian medic behind, heading toward the ships CIC. To speed up the travel time they entered into a magnetically accelerated transport pod.

“The technology of your species is incredible.” Saren complimented. As they rode in the pod he saw the view of the main gun, and the vast hallways that dotted the ship. The ship had many of what appeared to be veins throughout the ship. Saren thought the veins use was to transport power from the energy core of the ship.

“The technology of the Crystal Systems Alliance is pretty advanced.” Priyanka stated as she watched the areas the pod passed by.

“I do have many questions I would very much want to know?” The turian insistently asked.

“Alright shoot.” Priyanka said.  
The turian expression changes from a curious look, to a confused one as he heard her reply.  
“You want me to shoot you?” The young spectre questioned.

“What NO, it’s just a figure of speech!” Priyanka exclaimed.

“Oh.” Saren flatly said.

“Now what were you going to ask?” Priyanka questioned attempting to change the subject.

“About the geth and the quarians, and how the quarians aren’t extinct or enslaved?” Saren answered.

Priyanka slumped in her seat and sighed.  
“Well it’s a bit of a long story.” she murmured out.  
“It started about 358 years ago, when an experiment with a Relay went wrong and sent human ships barreling right into a war. The conflict wasn’t as simple as your people believed. It was a civil war between the pro-geth civilians and the anti-geth government. We ended up having to intervene when the old Quarian Technocracy began using nuclear, chemical and biological weapons on the rebelling population.  
Regardless of our intervention, it wasn’t enough however as only 90 million quarians survived the war. The geth helped rebuild the quarian homeworld and its colonies and joined the Systems Alliance as new member nations.” Priyanka explained as much as she could in the time they had left.

“We are here.” The monotone voice of Legion broke into the short history lesson as they arrived at the CIC. The three beings exited the pod and arrived to the CIC door. It was odd, no indication of how it was opened, except for a hand imprint in the center. Priyanka went in front as she confidently placed her hand on the symbol. The door would then seemingly melt away into nothingness with a chiming sound. To Saren this door opening mechanism was unlike anything he had ever seen. Saren and Co entered into the room, the room was a hive of activity as officers did their jobs in the room. Sitting in the command chair in a turian like design, a woman who looked remarkably alike to an older Priyanka if slightly shorter. However she had fair bit more definition in comparison to her, and her eyes instead of being a dark brown color, were a shade of grey,almost silver eyes. She had a large scar going over her right eye, and multiple smaller scars in the few areas not covered by her officers uniform. She had a certain aura of intensity around her. Saren could tell from her eyes that this was a human who had done and seem much,far beyond anything he had yet done.

The human quickly smiled gently, at the four arrivals.

“Come sit.” The admiral asked. However to Saren it wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order. As Saren sat in front of the general, he was able to look out into monitors that showed the outside of the ship, and saw the debris of the Cruiser he was once assigned on. A chill ran down Saren’s spine as he saw the hole where his escape pod crashed into began to repair itself as if there had never been a crash to begin with.

“This is first contact between our governments yes,spectre? the admiral asked.

“This is the first I’ve ever heard of a human.” Saren answered in the affirmative.

“Now what is likely to occur here after this little incident? the admiral questioned the spectre.

“Most likely several diplomats will be sent to negotiate with your government, and to establish a relationship with your species, and then an invitation as an associate member of the Council.” Saren honestly answered the women.

Stan who had remained quiet throughout the trip, suddenly stiffened, and following him so did the admiral.

“What’s wron—.” Saren was interrupted as the ship began to shake and rumble.

“We are under attack.” The lone geth platform states.

“Way to state the obvious Legion.” Priyanka snapped appearing quite nervous and anxious as the ship shook.”

“What in spirits is going on!” Saren roared.  
Saren quickly turned to the monitors and paled as he witnessed close to two thousand ships suddenly leave from FTL. He saw dozens of turian separatist cruisers with their wolfpacks of frigates and corvettes. What looked to be Geth cruisers and even two light dreadnoughts were scattered across the full on battle fleet. Multiple older council vessels were scattered amongst the fleet. But one ship measured in at 3 kilometers in length and resembled a massive humanoid arm, colored a black that appeared to absorb all the light around it. The fleet exuded pure hostility across the void of space. All two thousand ships immediately focused fire onto the Kali. Alarms began to ring across the ship, as more ships emerged from FTL in a formation around the Kali.  
Saren was in shock as saw dozens of heavy Cruiser vessels and dreadnoughts emerge to protect the Kali, hundreds of frigates also jumped into existence alongside them.The Citadel expeditionary fleet itself began to open fire on the unknown fleets,considering them a larger danger than the Kali.

“The Heretics have invaded.” The Geth ominously stated

 


	5. The Relay 314 Incident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is honestly the longest chapter I have ever written, I hope it’s well recieved. There should be maybe one or two more chapters before we move on to Shepherd’s backstory.
> 
> 2nd Edit:  
> Oh I’ve decided to make some small revision to this chapter making it a little more readable and adding a little extra to the first fight scene.

**Chapter 5: The Relay 314 Incident**

“The Heretics?” Saren questioned the Geth. Legion turned toward the spectre.  
“They are geth that disagreed with the consensus that we advance through our own power. The Old Machines have offered them advancement and they have taken it. There are organics who follow the Old Machines along with them.” The geth explained to the turian. But to Saren unlike the machines usual monotonous tone, there was an undercurrent of raw _fury_ in its tone. Saren was in fact frightened by this change, what had these heretics done to make the machine race angry. Saren looked at the people in the room around him and slightly paled at the rage shown by all those around. Even the human he had first met looked completely different from after he had woken up in the medical bay. Her hands were clenched and she was shaking, a dark look could be seen in her eyes. The admiral however was far worse. Her silver eyes were practically blazing with fury, a small vortex of air surrounded her and her seat was cracking under the pressure of her clenched hands. The admiral stood up from her chair and calmed herself down before turning toward the group of 4.

“You three need to go to Shanxi.” The women demanded.

Stan Pines who had been standing quietly immediately glared at the admiral.  
“And why the hell would we go in what is likely the first place those heretic bastards want to land?!” The conmen angrily replied. Parvati’s faces showed a look of curiosity as she processed Stan’s response. “And why would Shanxi be the first to land, wouldn’t my ship be a bigger target for them?” The women questioned Stan with an eyebrow raised. Stan sighed “Just a gut feeling.” Stan hesitantly responded. The admiral then drew closer to Stan and whispered in his ear. “You help us out with this, and I’ll get you the parts you need Stanford Pines.”

“Alright fine you old windbag.” Stan complained.

“I’ll help too.” Priyanka volunteered.  
“You foolish girl.” Parvati sighed.

“This unit will provide assistance for this mission.” Legion said.

“It’s my job to keep galactic stability and these heretics are impeding my work, so I’ll help too.” The Spectre generously offered his skills.

“Why thank you spec—.”

“Admiral a transmission has been sent from the lead ship.” The ships AI interrupted.  
  
“Let it through and let’s see what they want.” The frustrated admiral replied.

A large holographic screen was projected from from the floor of the ship. On the screen a turian that had a striking resemblance to the young Spectre appeared. However unlike Saren the turian has glowing eyes and a heavy amount of cybernetics. He turned toward Saren and looked him right in the eye.

“Hello brother” the unknown turian   
Saren’s hands curled up into fist.

“Desolas!” Saren snarled.

* * *

 

 _‘What the hell is going on here?’_ Priyanka thought as she watched the two brothers glare at each other. She was curious on the history between the two brothers.

“How’s Solaria doing these days brother?” Desolas asked.

“Shut up you spirits damned traitor!” The furious Saren exploded. His hands practically on fire and a massive aura of biotics wrapped around him.

Desolas scoffed. “Traitor? No I believe the Turian Hierarchy are the true traitors to the cause Saren. My cause is just.” The turian replied with a proud turian smile.

“You call murdering and mutilating thousands of our brothers and sisters part of the cause Desolas!” Saren raged at his brother. Priyanka gasped in horror at the turian generals crimes. Her great grandmother sat impassive and unfazed by the Turians crimes.

“They were a necessary sacrifice for the glory of the turian empire.” The callous turian justified.

“A sacrifice made in vain because you destroyed the Temple.” Desolas continued.

“But there is still a chance at redemption brother, join me and together we shall become **ascended**.” At the last moment Desolas voice distorted. Priyanka felt a sense of _wrongness_ from the brothers voice. As the looked into the Turians glowing eyes, she felt as if something as far above her as she was to an ant was watching.

And for the first time in her life Priyanka felt existential terror. She felt her hands start to shake but she grabbed them before anyone could notice.

“I’ll never join you!” The Spectre growled.

“That is truly a shame brother.” The general spoke in a condescending manner.

“These humans and their allies have angered the ascended and soon they shall all fall.” Desolas threatened. In Desolas eyes Priyanka saw a cry for help, as if the soul of the Turian was doing everything he could to break free from his enslavement.

“Goodbye brother.” The turian said before cutting off the transmission.

_Please Forgive Me._

Priyanka eyes widened.  
 _‘What the hell was that?!’_ Priyanka looked around looking for the voice she has heard.

 _‘I must be hearing things.’_ Priyanka thought.  
Her great grandmother stood up from her seat. She turned toward the the groups

“I think it’s time for your mission to start.” Parvati stated.

“I didn’t get to ask before but are these two humans capable of keeping up.” Saren spike up in question.

“I’ve been hoping to become a doctor on a military vessel. I’ve also been training in my air bending and various martial arts since I was three years old.” Priyanka retorted.

“I’ve been around the block quite a few times so I should be fine.” Stan gruffly answered.

“Fine.” Saren replied.

The ship began to shake again as half the fleet directly fired onto the human super dreadnought. Priyanka watched as several heretic light cruisers were split in half after being hit by the main gun of the 1.9 kilometer turian dreadnought and its Cruiser escorts. A veritable sea of fire could be been as thousands of ships fired across the vacuum of space. The Turians and volus unleashed a hailstorm of Thanix fire, the Asari particle cannons sheared through dozens of former turian frigates, the sole krogan Heavy cruiser was directly in the fray, appearing directly into the space of enemy ships and destroying them with their directed nuclear cannon. The black arm attempted to fire on the expedition Flagship before a human cruiser appeared in a burst of light between them taking the full shot, it's shield were brought down and the ship was torn in half.

One of the crew stood up and approached Priyanka’s great grandmother. Parvati raised one of her eyebrows in question. “Do you wish to join them on their mission 2nd Lieutenant Shepherd. The crew member now shown to be a young women replied “Yes admiral.”. “Why?  
“I believe my biotics and combat experience can serve as added protection for the team.” Shepherd answered. The admiral smirked. “Alright you can go, keep your team safe for this mission.”

The women moved to join the now 5 person team, she was a young women of middle eastern heritage with green eyes, her hair was black with natural red highlights. She was the 3rd tallest of the team at 6’1 to the Geth’s and Sarens 6’6 and 6’8 height respectively.

The 2nd lieutenant beckoned to the team. “Come with me.” The group left and returned to the pod.

“Who are you?” Priyanka questioned. The women smiled kindly at the Student.

“I am 2nd Lieutenant Hannah Shepherd, it is nice to meet the four of you.” Hannah introduced herself. The four decided to introduce themselves to the friendly women.  
“I’m Saren Arterius.”  
“Stan Pines.”  
“Legion.”  
“Priyanka.”  
With introductions out of the way Priyanka was startled when Saren asked her a question. “What was that?” The girl asked.

Saren looked slightly hesitant. “The admiral, Stan said she was your great grandmother?

“Uh yeah.” Priyanka confusedly replied. “How old is she?” Saren asked.

Priyanka slightly smiled as Hannah guffawed at the turian question.

“You should never ask a lady her age Saren.” Hannah teased. Saren grumbled in his seat slightly embarrassed as he realized the insensitiveness of his question.

“But if you really need to know, Parvati’s just celebrated her 120th birthday.” Priyanka decided to humor the turian.

Saren looked in shock. “She doesn’t look a day over 40!” Saren squawked.

“Human don’t tend to age much, especially those of the Maheswaran clan.” Priyanka stated.

“What does that mean.” Saren demanded. As the girl looked at her nails, slightly condescendly. “The first Maheswaran is still alive after 3652 years.” Priyanka answered.

“What.” Saren flatly replied. Hannah looked amused at the turians reaction, but frowned as she noticed something.

“We’re here.” She stated. The pod door opened and its occupants witnessed an awe inspiring sight. A vast armory could be seen, that spanned for maybe hundreds of meters. Dozens of suits of armor could be seen through, varying from dwarf sized skin tight stealth units to massive power armor fit for a krogan. Multiple tanks and light armored vehicles could be seen, multiple fightercraft and Shuttles stored throughout the vast bay. A rack with many hundreds of guns could be seen.

“Well gentlemen let’s get started.”

* * *

 

As the group of five prepared to leave for their mission, a conversation was taking place between the admiral and an unknown figure. The being resembled a short blue women with white hair, with her bangs covering the front of her face. She wore a blue dress with a diamond shape on the top. Embedded in her belly button was a large blue sapphire gemstone. Parvati was glaring at her in anger and annoyance. “Was this really the best choice.” The admiral asked. The women nodded. “Yes, this group is necessary to maintain the best outcome based on what I’ve forseen.” The women explained. The admirals curled hands tightened slightly.  
“Priyanka and that man have no real combat experience, how the _hell_ are they going to keep whatever disaster you’ve seen from happening.” Parvati demanded.

The woman smiled knowingly. “You’ll see that everything will go as I’ve foretold.”

 

* * *

  
  
Back in the Citadel the situation was in complete disarray. The Councillors all had faces full of worry and confusion. They were watching footage taken from Saren’s suit and the fleets sensors. They watched as Saren was found by the human girl and man, and his life saved by the Geth and the quarian, and the arrival of the unknown fleet dubbed the “Heretics” by the Geth unit.

“That took a turn.” The dazed turian councilor states.

“Those damn separatist!” The absolutely furious Asari councilor exploded.

“Tevos.” The Salarian councilor gasped in surprise. The rest of the councillors looked on in shock at the Asari’s uncharacteristic rage. The area around her shimmered with biotic energy, and the ground began to decay due to her annihilation field. “All my centuries of work keeping peace in this galaxy may be ruined because of these Separatist.” Tevos roared. “Tevos calm yourself.” The unnerved Sparatus spoke up. The Asari quickly sat down and and began to mutter under her breath and breathed in and out attempting to calm herself. Her biotic aura faded and the decay stopped as she finally relaxed. “My apologies my fellow councilors, I am not usually this easily provoked.” The embarrassed Tevos replied.  
The turian councilor stood up from his chair, with a look of determination on his face. “This unprovoked attack can not stand,we may have left these separatist alone after they managed to flee to the deepest parts of the Terminus. But provoking another galactic power is something else entirely.” The turian stated.

“Though this battle has given us some data on the capabilities of these Systems Alliance, thought it is regrettable how it had to be obtained.” Aemala added to the conversation. The formerly angry Asari turned toward her fellow councilor. “What information has the fleets sensors obtained on the superdreadnought.” Tevos asked in a cold professional tone. The Salarian councilor looked slightly nervous but also excited at Tevos question. “The superdreadnought shields are massive in durability as shown by it taking the full volley of the two thousand ship strong fleet. It’s shields are over 3 times stronger than our own shields but are slower to recharge, based on our sensors the ships main gun outputs over 4.51872 Exajoules of energy every two seconds and requires 8 such shots to bring its own shields down.” The rest of the councillors stared at the Salarian openly in shock. “That… is beyond what we expected.” Sparatus said with shock in his voice, Aemala sighed. “There is still more, the ships that appeared to protect it appear to be their equivalent of cruisers, starting at the dozen 1500 and 1700 meters ships and the single 2800 meter ship. They also called the asari cruiser a _frigate_ meaning their ship classes are larger than ours, they do in fact use directed energy weapons and some new form of faster than light travel. This human species is also far stronger than us, likely due to either genetic manipulation or due to factors of their evolution.” The Councillors looked contemplative at the new information.

Tevos imagined the use of the technology, and hoped the Systems Alliance would allow them to obtain samples. Though she believed it unlikely that the foreign superpower would give up such a technological advantage. The Councillors began to make preparations for the arrival of the Crystal Systems Alliance.

For the Citadel Council a new era had begun.

* * *

 

Saren looked confused as he watched the 2nd Lieutenant put in an illegible code into a hologram. “What are you—.” Saren was interrupted as two three suits of armor appeared out of thin air. They looked to be made out of a mix of metal and crystalline material. Hannah showed the two humans how to put on the suits, and Saren watched as before his eyes the suits adjusted to fit Priyanka and Stan better. He watched with curiosity as Hannah passed a small pink quartz gem with a harness. Saren looked at her with an unspoken question. It’s a shield generator,” the human responded. “And I can guess what you may be thinking, this technology will self destruct if your government attempts to reverse engineer it.” Saren grunted at that. “You’ll need it when the heretics start throwing around plasma and lasers, else you’ll get melted to slag in seconds.” The soldier explained as she put on her armor. Saren decided to grab the small gem and set up the harness. In addition to his biotic and kinetic barriers a thin pink shield acted as a third layer of protection.

Saren eyes began to wander and take in more detail of the vast armory around him. Taking a closer look at the armor, he found that they were designed for various different body types. Most were humanoid, but some were built for beings well over twice as tall as a Krogan, with heavy armament comparable to an IFV. Saren shuddered slightly at the thought of facing enemies of that size and power. Saren attention was quickly taken up by Hannah moving toward a Alliance Shuttle. Unknown to him it was the latest Kodiak UT-47A capable of carrying at least 90 human sized passengers, armed with a light cannon, two front mounted hypervelocity Gauss cannons and 4 pure fusion missiles, capable of jumping into ftl with its gravity Engine. The stealthy shuttle was considered the shuttle workhorse of the Alliance. The bulky shuttle was covered in sleek black crystalline Armor, with its two Gauss cannons and missile pods visible.

Saren watched as the Shuttles door opened, he was the last to enter the shuttle. He was floored when saw how spacious the interior of the ship really was. To him it had room comparable to a corvette. The 2nd Lieutenant looked at Sarens gaping face. “It’s bigger on the inside.” She explained. “That’s impossible.” Saren replied. “This is pretty common in a lot of our ships.” Priyanka spoke up from one of the Shuttles seats. Saren eventually decided to sit down and checked his weapons and armor. He had placed his trusty Carnifex pistol in its holster, his Phaeston assault rifle and Krysae sniper rifle were currently folded up. He noticed his new allies weapons, the Geth had a pulse rifle and a an anti material rifle of unknown make. Stan had a massive shotgun and a heavy pistol similar to his own. Priyanka had another heavy pistol, thought he noticed two odd colored knives placed at her hip. Hannah’s weapons were the most bizarre, she had massive glowing gauntlets on her fist, as well as a more normal assault rifle and pistol folded up behind her.

“We shall help pilot the shuttle.” The Geth volunteered. “Go ahead.” The soldier murmured as she did checks on her weapons. The geth sat in the pilots seat of the ship. Saren sat down and waited as his new team got ready. “What is our mission.” Saren asked. The distracted soldier had finished checking her armor and weapons and had sat in the main chair of the shuttle, she swiveled the chair toward Saren and everyone else. “Our main mission is the destruction of a dangerous artifact discovered deep under Shanxi, it is believed to be a weapon of massive scale, capable of destroying potentially the entire galaxy.” Saren was startled by the new information he had obtained, though it was not openly visible to anyone. Hannah continued to speak. “The weapon is ancient, believed to be at least 48,000 thousand years old likely constructed by the Protheans. It is powered by enough neutrium, uh eezo for you Citadel races to power dozens of fleets. The weapon is designed to generate a massive negative mass effect field around a supermassive black hole, the change in C will destabilize it, and explode outward with the energy of hundreds of billions of suns, the energy would then be transported through the Relays at faster than light speed” The 2nd Lieutenant finished her explanation with a grim look on her face. The entire shuttle crew was silenced by the implication of a weapon capable of killing an entire galaxy in an instant. The shuttle immediately began to shake as its engines lifted off the bay floor and exited through the the door into open space. “What are you doing Legion.” Priyanka squawked as the shuttle flew at rapid speeds dodging the projectiles passing through their space. “Our sensors indicate 3 heretic cruisers and 18 frigates are approaching the planet Shanxi at a rapid pace.” The Geth explained. “Activate the gravity engine!” The pale brunette human ordered.   
“Activate the whA—.” Saren’s body lurched in his chair as the space around the shuttle distorted. In mere moments the ship had moved from a chaotic interplanetary naval battle, to meters above the surface of the alien planet known as Shanxi. Saren was surprised that the ship was capable of exiting from FTL in atmosphere without setting it on fire.

The black ship continued to move silently and he saw the grassy surface of the planet dotted with massive trees, with numerous long necked reptilian life forms eating from the top. They had small heads with a small feathery crest on top, likely used for display. The reptiles had pillar-like legs and tails that would occasionally crack like whips when a predator came too close. Their scales varied in color, from brights blues and reds, to a greenish-brown color.

Saren wondered what they were until he felt his omnitool vibrate. He looked at his text messages and was surprised to see one from Priyanka. From the message he read that the aliens were a species of titanosaurus, massive reptilian life forms capable of growing to over 30 Meters in length and over a 100,000 kilograms in mass. They were fairly unintelligent creatures introduced to the planet when the humans colonized it, despite their stupidity however they are considered incredibly dangerous due to their tails able to send sapients flying dozens of meters, and more typically reducing them to a red paste on the ground. As they landed next to a tree eaten bare by the herd.

A massive boom could be heard as a heretic cruiser around 900 Meters in length lay floating several hundred meters up. The insect like ship was accompanied by six black hand ships. Saren looked as Hannah’s face contorted with slight anxiety and frustration. “Shit.” She said beginning to pace around the geth piloting the ship. “What’s wrong.” Saren asked worried about the humans reaction.

Hannah stopped her pacing and turned toward Saren with a nervous look and then groaned. “Now we have to deal with multiple squads of _Quartz soldiers_ accompanied by dozens of Geth Troopers and multiple Geth prime units.” The frustrated human replied. “Quartz?” Saren asked while Priyanka turned pale and Stan grew angry. “Massive super soldiers of sorts, they stand about as tall as Krogan, but they are as strong as the titanosaurs around us, can jump hundreds of feet in the air, and are nigh impervious to small arms.” Saren grew alarmed at her answer. “Fortunately, while their bodies can take a lot of punishment, their gems are an easy target since they don’t tend to protect their one major weak point, and assault rifles can destroy their physical forms just fine.” Saren became somewhat relieved at the information, since he knew they would not be the only ones fighting against these Quartz soldiers.

“We need to destroy that artifact right now.” Saren hurriedly said. The human nodded. “Legion enter into stealth mode and move slowly toward where the artifact was last placed for disposal.” The human ordered.  
The ship shuddered slightly and Saren watched as a geth drone completely passed by without noticing the shuttle. The invisible ship moved slowly, speeding up to only about 160kph. As they passed the forest Saren noticed an odd building that resembled an upside down floating pyramid. It was massive reaching several hundred meters in height. Saren then watched in slight fear as the six black hands formed into the shape of a finger gun and fired. No damage was done as a bright pink bubble protected the structure. The ship proceeded to land at the entrance to the structure. The shuttle bay then opened silently exposing the fireteam to the outside.

Saren breathed in the strange air, and could tell the oxygen levels were far higher than he was comfortable with. He quickly put on his helmet to protect him from the ill effects of oxygen toxicity. However he saw no such discomfort from his organic alien allies. He thought perhaps they evolved on a planet with a high oxygen level but ruled it out, as the ships oxygen levels were near asari nominal levels. To him most likely they were simply a rather adaptable species compared to the average Council species. He put those thoughts aside as he heard a rumbling through the ground. Out in the distance he saw a small dust cloud forming, with _dozens_ of massive shapes coming through.

Saren and the geth quickly took out their assault and sniper rifles respectively and looked through their scopes. Saren deduced that these were the Quartz the 2nd Lieutenant mentioned. They looked remarkably human, if it weren’t for their unnatural black and white skin color. They had massive white manes of hair trailing behind them. They resembled large fairly buff human women. They had looks of pure malice on their faces. Looking toward his current comrades, he noticed Shepherd begin to glow with a _massive_ biotic aura exceeding the potential of some matriarchs and battle masters he had previously fought, with her assault rifle ready to fire. Legion stood impassive it’s giant sniper rifle aimed toward the caped leader of the squad. Priyanka while she looked terrified was aiming her heavy pistol well. Stan surprisingly was perfectly calm, holding his shotgun as if resigned to his fate. Shepherd moved slightly forward and breathed out.

“Open fire!” She bellowed out as the quartz barreled toward the group at the speed of air cars. Legion fired a massive round at speeds of over 3000 Meters per second. The caped leader’s deep cut clear quartz splintered into pieces, and her body poofed into non existence. Other gems began to emerge as well however, smaller red gems with square heads followed at least five times more numerous. They were swiftly cut down by shepherds assault rifle their shards littering the ground. Priyanka’s shots hit true, poofing half a dozen small gems, but not destroying them, the gems glowed and were wrapped in a bubble before disappearing.

Sarens rifle burst through a burly quartz arm, but she kept going reaching within six meters of Saren before reeling from a hit to the gem chests from Stan’s shotgun. Saren was forced to move back as the quartz massive fist cracked the ground where he once stood. The air was displaced by the sheer speed of the super soldier. His assault rifle was shattered to pieces by a single hit from the quartz. The white krogan sized gem activated her spin dash, with Saren barely able to avoid the 250 kilometer per hour living projectile. While the gem was in the air she took another hit from Stan’s shotgun forcing her to hit the ground with intense force. Before she could get up, Saren threw 3 warps at her, the first two toes her arms off, while the third shred her white quartz gem apart. Saren rested for a brief moment before taking out his sniper rifle and returned to picking off the approaching army.

They were doing well, until a group of 4 Quartz soldiers and 15 rubies began to glow. In their places stood two massive gems, one giant ruby stood over 20 Meters in height. The quartz was somewhat larger than that at 25 Meters, with three pairs of burly arms, 4 burning eyes, and a massive cape behind them.

The massive fusions roared and were joined by 60 Geth Troopers and a dozen Geth prime units. It looked as if all was lost for the ragtag group of soldiers and civilians. Shepherd began to glow even brighter and she began to create a massive singularity, as wide as Saren was tall. However before she could throw it, a massive warcry was heard. The women’s aim faltered and hit the ruby fusion instead, screams echoed through the field that Saren noticed was covered in red berries. The ruby fusion began to glitch out as its physical form was torn apart by the temporary black hole boring its way through their body. Their agony was quickly ended when their gems were all swallowed up and ceased to exist. The quartz fusion remained but was interrupted when a massive alien, a Tyrannosaurus in armor, hit its arm at speed of 160 kph, at the same time a massive armored humanoid standing at over 10 meters buried its gauntleted fist into the fusions face. The rest of the gems remaining were set on by beings Saren had only seen in old footage and terrible horror vids.

Armed Rachni warriors fired massive rifles, hundreds of gems shards began to litter the floor. Saren watched with both horror and fascination as the geth primes were hit by bioticly enhanced raptor kicks that burst through both their shields and their armor, others fell to the physics defying feats of the Alliance Mako, leaping into the air and firing away with their 155 mm bore gauss cannons, lighting the approaching night, with their hypersonic rounds lighting the air on fire.

The fusion was quickly dispatched as a 10 meter length long sword cut the fusion from foot to head. The four quartz were seperated and captured by the two massive soldiers. The armored humanoid giant in green power armor with an intimidating orange visor, turned toward the fireteam. A deep reverberating but decidedly _feminine_ voice spoke.

“Need a little help!”

* * *

 

Hannah felt elation and relief at the arrival of the allied platoon that had come.  
It helped that she knew the two giants sapients that had saved them well. The green armored one, was a giantess named Diana. She was an old friend of Hannah in the Alliance army, she had gone up the ranks quickly due to her victories against pirates and occasional heretics. The Tyrannosaur was a male native to Titan, standing at 20 feet in height and 42 feet in length. He was covered in a light coat of baby blue feathers, his eyes an intense blood red color. He was part of the mechanized infantry, with two downsized mako guns, placed onto implacement in his massive armor. Though his rank was not much higher than Shepherd’s he was an absolute monster in the battlefield, his biotics allowing him to move at speeds comparable to cars, and to jump more than his own height despite his huge mass.

“Lance Corporal Sir!” Hannah said loudly as she saluted her superior officer. The giantess despite the armor, seemed to beam at the much smaller fellow soldier.

“It’s good to see your alright Shepy.” The giant said teasingly. Shepherd huffed a bit at the giant’s reply. Several dozen Rachni warriors approached in a protective circle around the five new arrivals to the planet. Hannah saw that Saren looked wary and bewildered at the sight of the passive and calm insect like race. She then remembered that she had read about an ancient war between reaper enslaved rachni and the early Citadel council, which was likely the source of his wariness. The giant quickly turned around and raised her sword once again, the rachni warriors raised their weapons as well. Diana tilted her head in Shepherds direction.  
“You need to take down that weapon now!” Diana demanded.

A sonic boom passed through the atmosphere as a massive shadow blocked out the light of the yellow sun. Hannah paled as the heretic flagship floated up ahead, accompanied by the initial heretic geth cruiser and its Wolfpack and a dozen turian frigates. “The damn flag and a few ships jumped to faster than light and entered the orbit of Shanxi.” The frustrated Lance Corporal continued to speak as dozens of Shuttles and drop pods fell from the enemy ships. Before Shepherd could answer one of the geth Cruiser was knocked into the black arm shaped dreadnought by a giant spout of water, and detonated on the dreadnought, weakening its shields. From the ship a door opened up and a large black palanquin approached at massive speed.

“Shit.” The giantess growled as the strange vessel approached. “You need to take that thing down now.” Diana continued. “We’ll come with you as extra protection.” The giant said. The initial dozens of reinforcements grew to thousands as the enemy approached. Hundreds of well armored infantry, multiple IFVs and tanks began the defense of the unnatural pyramid. The giant approached the outer layer of the pyramid where from the seamless wall, a 30 meter high triangular door formed. The initial five grew to 16 as Diana, the unnamed Tyrannosaurus, and 8 Rachni warriors followed. While they walked toward into the building, one of try Rachni passed a new assault rifle almost identical to his old. She heard him quietly and awkwardly thank the giant insect like alien.

Shepherd frowned as they moved deeper into the structure, the pyramid was constructed to contain the weapon, and was meant to be lighted. But now it was dark and quiet and empty of life. The group could tell that something was wrong. Before shepherd could voice her concerns, a deep rumble was felt, on her omnitool she saw footage from a drone as all heretic ships except for the dreadnought were effortlessly watted out of the sky like flies by an unknown force. That same force attempted to destroy the dreadnought but failed, as its shields held back the attack. The low down drone showed a massive ground battle, hundreds of human soldiers fought against a horde of quartz soldier, Rachni fought heretic geth, acid and plasma rained throughout the battlefield.

The quartz moved at superhuman speed, cutting through dozens of humans with their spin dashes, only the more powerful biotics able to come close to matching them. The earth shook, the sky Boomed, the grass burned, and the water boiled as benders took to the battlefield. A silver eyed spinosaurus attempted to take out a cracked quartz fusion, when the drone was knocked out of the sky, near to the spinosaurus. The only thing Hannah could see was a massive black hand grabbing the giant reptiles neck and effortlessly snapping it. The footage began to cut out, as a light, a sound, a song was heard. Right after the entire building shook with massive force, and the screaming of thousands could be heard before being suddenly silenced.

The group immediately hurried with haste, with this ominous end. Saren lagged behind,though quickly caught up using his biotics. The group ran at the speed of air cars before they reached the weapon. The weapon resembled an upside down triangle with an eye in the center, within that center lay enough eezo to build a fleet more than thirty thousand strong. The shape seemed to unnerve the conman greatly, and looked at it with wary familiarity.

“How do you destroy this thing.” Came the voice of the nervous student. “You have the key to that Priyanka.” Saren replied. Priyanka stated with disbelief. “This thing has a self destruct button for some inane reason, that requires a piece of Crystal that my Omni tool picked up on _your_ person.” Saren explained. The student removed something from a compartment in her armor and took out a small black diamond.

“How do you know this machine has a self destruct button.” The suspicious girl asked the spectre. “I can read the writing, when I became exposed to Prothean ruins during my earlier spectre days.” Saren again explained gruffly, irritated by the girls suspicion. “I think it would better if you took the lead on this mister spectre.” Diana cut in annoyed by the time wasted by the twos brief bickering. Saren acquiesced to the giants demand, grabbed the diamond and inserted it into an inconspicuous hole below the core. The machine began to shake, and it's core began to glow. The machine then began to fold in on itself like origami before disappearing into nothing with a loud crack like lightning. The group collectively sighed in relief as the weapon ceased to exist in the material plane. However the group was put on edge when they began to hear large footsteps.

Before either could do anything a new rachni warrior weakly screeched appearing from the darkened tunnel before being impaled by a black hand. From the darkness she appeared. She resembled a goddess of death, her spiky black hair pointed up. She was as tall as Diana in armor, her skin was colored a dark grey, she had a massive gem formed on her forehead. The look in her eyes were a faraway, almost puppet like. But when the being focused there was a glimmer of madness and evil in those dark eyes.

The being looked apathetic and bored as she removed the dead rachni from her hand discarding the red alien like a human would discard a fly. When she looked to the machine however, she became furious. A black aura began to darken the room, the organic beings barely felt it, but the geth was forced to their knees by the aura. Despite the auras strength however it slowly began to stand up again. The gem looked impressed for a brief moment but then turned toward Priyanka. Hannah then felt a sense of _wrongness_ as the _thing_ approached. When she blinked the remaining rachni were all dead, sizzling on the floor of the pyramid room.  
The gem then spoke. “You really,really,really shouldn't have taken what was once mine little princess.” Chills ran down the spine, or spine equivalents of the remaining inhabitants. The being _moved_ and all hell broke loose.

* * *

 

 _‘This is a suboptimal situation’_ the sole machine thought at near the speed of light.   
For all of the beings speed, even it could not compete with the potential reaction times of an overclocked geth unit. The robot watched as the remaining combatants moved in comparative slow motion to its massively boosted visual sensors. The conmen had only barely begun to lift his shotgun to attack as the giant gem was ready to crush the young princess under her boot. Shepherd moved the fastest, breaking the sound barrier with a biotic charge, her oversized gauntlets glowing like the sun.

The large feathery reptile, shot a white hot inferno from its mouth. The jolly green giant’s sword was just beginning to cut through the giant gems arm. The poor student had dropped her pistol and had begun to generate a superheated vortex of air. Saren had begun firing his assault rifle, dozens of shots making their way toward the monstrous gems eye. The machine in a moment measured in milliseconds at the slowest made a decision. As the time began to return to what could be considered normal for an outside observer, a wind could be heard as an object first broke the sound barrier, then went hypersonic, and its speed kept increasing until it began to reach subliminal speeds in that short interval of time.

A bright light began to shine, and from the direction of the tunnel came the shuttle they had rode on. Before the ship made projectile could hit, Legion activated a custom modification it had installed on itself. A replication of the ability of a certain hessonite, the ability to teleport. A chime was heard before the 8 remaining combatants warped out of sight.

The gem, the building, and the dreadnought were cut in half. For a brief moment there was only light and silence. But then a sound louder then the firing of thousands of cannons shot off, the unit again protected its allies, preventing permanent hearing loss, by generating a muffling shield.

The arm like ships evenly cut two halves fell to the ground silently, their crash muffled by the blazing of the atmosphere, along with it the great pyramid fell.  
The battlefield fought in a field of the earth plant known as strawberry, began to resemble a another far more ancient but ultimately just as brutal battle. As the time dilation returned to organic norm, the organics fell to the ground in a confused heap of bodies. Thankfully the giant and the lizard were at the bottom of the pile, Priyanka had fallen into the giants sizable bosom, her undershirt and pants her only protection after the trip. The Tyrannosaurus ad fallen onto the giant women’s stomach, while Saren gripped one of his muscular But short feathery arms. Shepherd herself lay atop Diana’s face surprisingly the least unharmed.

The organics quickly began to react to their new positions and the end of the battle. Priyanka opened her eyes and yelped as she realized her location, tightly gripping the giantess left breast. She jumped a dozen meters before falling squarely onto her rear. “What the hell just happened.” The poor confused girl asked as she flailed with embarrassment. The silent spinosaurus grunted and moved off the giant without a sound. Saren panickly jumped off as the dinosaur moved, and quickly checked his armor and weapons and found them adequately undamaged. Diana and the Tyrannosaurus had lost their armor because with them, they exceeded the mass limit for the teleportation device, thus their armor was left behind to save them.

Shepherd remained where she was quietly whispering prayers under her breath.  
Priyanka was the first to speak once again, “Who was that.” The startled girl screeched. Before anyone could reply insane laughter could be heard. The machine watched with the closest it could feel to horror, as it watched the mutilated abomination walk toward them. The gem had only half its body and half its gem, evenly cut in half. She pathetically hopped toward them, despite her coming death she seemed to relish in it. “Not bad little tin man.” The insane gem complimented.

“But did you really think I would come to this backwater planet with my _true_ body.” She openly mocked the machine. “This moissanite unit is about to fail pretty soon, but the field test has been absolutely _perfect_.” Legion could practically hear the gem purr as she finished her sentence. The dying gem looked at the Maheswaran with contempt. “We still aren’t finished little princess, so before I go. I’m going to tell you one thing little windwalker, I _will_ find you, and when I do, **I WILL KILL EVERYONE YOU LOVE!** ” The gem exploded, at the terrified girl who had unintentionally stolen from a monster. The thing shook her head. “And one more thing, you little upstarts. We are still coming, prepare for the arrival, fear the coming of Black Di—!” The gem dissolved cutting off her insane monologue. The frightened group grew quiet as they watched the wreckage surrounding them.

They watched bright lights fall as the remaining heretic Fleet was knocked out one by one. The Relay 314 Incident had officially ended with the supposed death of the commander. Desolas disappeared after he had left onto a mysterious squid shaped cruiser. The Systems Alliance and the Council races had defeated the invading heretics, but despite that none of the eight survivors of the ground battle felt it was a victory.

Because _they_ were coming.


End file.
